Following the resignation of Labour Councillor Sharon Williams on 8th September 2008, a by-election to select a replacement councillor was arranged by Charnwood Borough
Council for Thursday 23rd October. Mrs Williams had gained her seat in the full borough elections in May 2007, when the party shares achieved were: Labour 44.7%,
Conservatives 38.8%, and BNP 16.5%.
The party votes in the Dishley & Hathern by-election held on 23rd October 2008 were:
Labour 838 49.7%
Conservative 490 29.1%
BNP 234 13.9%
Lib Dem 107 6.4%
Other 16 0.9%
Comparing the May 2007 full election with the present by-election, the shares of the vote of the three leading parties show that the Labour share increased 5%, the BNP share
decreased 2.6%, while the Conservative share fell by a substantial 9.7%. The weak
Liberal Democrat result reveals them as a Labour Party clone offering no new solutions to the problems we face here in Charnwood.
This result counters the national trend of diminishing support for Labour, but the reason may lie in the demographics of Dishley and Hathern. The ward is “enriched” by a substantial 16.7% proportion of voters of foreign origin, mainly East European and South Asian, who might be expected to support Labour politicians because they are the chief facilitators of mass immigration into Britain. The proportion of foreign named voters in Hathern is only 3.1%, but the majority of villagers are likely to hold traditional conservative views and support the Conservatives. Conversely, in the Barsby Drive and Braddon Road area of Dishley the proportion of foreign named voters is a formidable 26.5%, a block vote which Labour could be relied upon to target for support.
These demographics also help explain the shortage of homes for our young people and the determination of local Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems to concrete over Leicestershire’s attractive countryside for 19,000 additional houses by 2026, along with associated retail, industrial, educational and medical facilities. Notwithstanding that Britain is now the most densely populated country in Europe, with double the density of Italy, the Labour government, supported by the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, plans to impose another 3 million houses on green belt land by 2020. The Charity Optimum Population Trust states that Britain’s maximum sustainable population is 30 million, not the existing and increasing 61 million.
It was satisfying to achieve more than twice as many votes as the Liberal Democrats and to firmly retain third place. A big thank you to all those who came out to vote for our valiant environmentalist candidate, Julia Green, and grateful thanks to the volunteers who generously helped leaflet and canvass during the campaign. We continue to improve communication of our moderate and common sense policies, and if you would like to lend a hand locally to Britain’s fastest growing political party, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Text or phone 07952 977114 or write to us at PO Box 8186, Loughborough LE11 9AX.
